


tentative bonds

by starlonging



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Columbia - Freeform, Gen, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Pre-medication Andrew, twinyard bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 08:13:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15092744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlonging/pseuds/starlonging
Summary: An instance of tentative bonding between the twins.





	tentative bonds

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first one shot, so if forgive me for poor writing. I just have an excess love for the twinyards that needs to be expressed. Sorry if anyone seems ooc. I can only say I'll better next time!

Aaron Minyard had learned a lot of things over the years. He had learned to never trust weather reports for they were almost always inaccurate to hilarity, he had learned just how to throw his phone on his bed so it bounced harmlessly off the pillow instead of the floor, he had even learned how to pickpocket though that was a talent of his known by none.

He had not learned yet how to accept concern however and that is why he had ignored Nicky’s furrowed looks towards him that had grown ever more alarmed with the passing days and why he had merely rolled his eyes when Andrew had graced him with a languidly raised brow and a pointed step away at his cough as they made their way to the GS after school.

Poor choices always had poor results and so he now laid in his bed on a late Saturday morning, head throbbing a pounding rhythm against his skull as it danced to the deep ache in his bones. His skin burned to Nicky’s gentle touch and his throat burned with the coughs that racked him.

Nicky, mother hen that he was, frantically piled blankets on top of him, his mouth running a mile a minute as he asked Aaron what he could do, what he needed, did he need a doctor? Though Aaron merely croaked at him to fuck off, he recognized Nicky’s anxiety. Nicky might be prone to sleeping through his alarm and burning 75% of whatever monstrosity he had tried to cook but he could never be accused of not caring enough and as much as he tried to hide it, the strain of shouldering all responsibility for the twins made his hands shake. Nicky wanted everything for them but fact was that people like them could not accept everything even if it was offered to them on a gold platter. And in the end he was just a young man, barely out of his teenage years himself and he simply did not know what to _do_.

Caring for someone sick might seem to be a terribly simple thing but it was one learned by spending time around family, fathers and mothers who brushed away stray hair from their sleeping child’s face and none of them had had the luxury of that.

Nicky had taken to fidgeting now, his eyes apologetic as he sighed in defeat at Aaron’s stubbornness, “I have a shift at Sweeties right now but if you need anything, _call_ me. You feel better, you feel worse, _call me_  
. Just tell me, alright?”

Aaron grunted in acknowledgement and coughed again just as Nicky turned around to leave. It was bad timing for that made the idiot spin back immediately, evidently ready just to forego work altogether when Andrew’s heavy presence made itself known by the open door.

“Go.” There was absolutely no inflection to his voice but his flat word was powerful as Nicky left, albeit with his head hung.

Andrew remained though, planted at the doorway, as immovable as always as he stared at his twin. His head was tilted in a contemplative manner and not for the first time, Aaron wished he could know even a part of what went in there. He wished he could know what Andrew had been thinking when he promised to protect him. He wished he could know what Andrew had been thinking when he decided Aaron was not worth his words. He wished he could know what Andrew was thinking now. Was he _concerned _?__

__Aaron scoffed to himself and Andrew left, leaving the door open._ _

__Though drowsy and fevered, Aaron grabbed his biology textbook and pencil from the bedside table. He had an important test on Monday that he had yet to study for. Until last year, he would not have bothered. In fact, sickness would not have bothered him back then as much as it was doing today. It would’ve been an easy excuse to cut school and remain absent for the test. He could’ve simply slept in while his mother dragged herself out of bed with a hangover, irritable at it being a Monday, irritable for work, irritable at _existence_ itself. He could have lazed about in an empty house later, his chest feeling lighter at not having to tip-toe around the small rooms to avoid angering Tilda and her heavy hands._ _

__Things had changed. Things were good._ _

__It was surprisingly pleasant to have something as normal and trivial as a test at school to worry about._ _

__Aaron took the bare minimum notes at school, more interested in listening. He tended to grasp better that way. Later, when he was home, he would sit hunched over his book, reading through the chapters and making notes side by side on his own understanding. As a result, all his textbooks were a mess of smudged tables and notes in his own writing. Nicky often expressed shock over how he even managed to learn anything in that but Aaron had no trouble. He found it calming. It was visual proof that he was doing something, was working towards achieving something in his life._ _

__Unfortunately for him, the portion for the test was still bare white paper with print in his book. He had yet to go through them and it was an unbearably tedious task when one wanted to be thorough. Aaron discovered that his eyes refused to cooperate, his vision blurring as he fought valiantly to keep them open. His mind most likely had a closed sign flipped over the door since it did not seem capable of processing what words were._ _

__Eventually, Aaron gave up, falling into his pillows heavily and shutting his eyes. He felt weak and exhausted from the mere effort it had it taken to get through the little that he had read and he fell into fevered dreams just like that, hand still gripped loosely around the book in his lap. He cradled the line between awake and asleep and ferociously clung to it when he felt someone approach. Aaron could feel eyes on him and sensed the hesitation as the form reached forward with a dark hand. A second later, fingers brushed through his sweat damp hair, tenderly brushing them away from his forehead._ _

__There was a hopeful warmth in Aaron’s chest at the touch. Maybe it was his mother, but then his mother was dead, wasn’t she? She had never bothered with such tender reassurances anyway. It was Nicky then, the constantly worried idiot must have come back. Aaron thought he should tell him someday, to not worry about them so much. They were not used to it and Nicky was already giving them more than they had ever been given._ _

__The textbook was carefully pulled from under his hand and the blanket was pushed further up his cold body. Finally a little more comfortable, Aaron edged over the line and fell into darkness._ _

__Nicky was not known for tact and therefore he made a huge racket when he came back from his shift, rousing Aaron from sleep in his bedroom. He was feeling better already, his throat a little less itchy and fever considerably down. A bowl of soup was nevertheless pushed into his hands and he finished it gratefully, giving Nicky a tentative, small smile. Nicky stilled at that, shocked, and then there was a brilliant smile on his lips. For once he said nothing but quietly took the plate from Aaron and left._ _

__Aaron decided that he had had enough of his bed for the day. So he gathered his textbook from the bedside table and headed to the living room where Andrew had claimed one side of the small couch, his feet balanced on the coffee table as he paged idly through a book single handedly. His other hand fiddled with his phone, twisting and turning it around in his fingers in a rather uncharacteristic display of agitation._ _

__As Aaron settled slowly on the other side of the couch, he noticed a broken pencil lead lying on the table. Attention still snagged on Andrew, he opened the textbook to find notes made on the chapter. He stilled and from the corner of his eye he registered how Andrew was pointedly not looking at him. Not that he ever did but this time, instead of the practiced indolence he had come to expect there was a strange vulnerability to his form that came from trying to pretend. And as carelessly talented as Andrew was at many things, he failed at lying. He showed exactly who he was, pretending was not something he did._ _

__Aaron flipped through the pages and found all of them marked similarly in his brother’s meticulous hand. Face slack with surprise, he met Andrew’s eyes. He was unsurprised to find that whatever he had seen was gone already. Andrew’s similar hazel eyes were as flat as they always were, somehow taunting Aaron in their non-expression to say something. He didn’t. He did not have to. He knew what he had seen and he knew that if Andrew had backed away from it there was a reason. He was not a liar after all but if pretending nonchalance helped his brother, he would not stand in the way. So he simply nodded and went back to his book, mind once again occupied by normal and trivial things like tests._ _

__Things were changing for the better._ _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
